Summary

After the Inka empire collapsed, Hernando De Soto, who had helped Pizarro defeat the Inka, and his army spent the next four years in what is now the southwest United States looking for gold and destroying every area they passed through. The Indians fought back but were astounded by the Spaniards’ guns and horses. The conquistadors killed and raped and pillaged but worse than that they introduced pigs into the region.

The army crossed the Mississippi over to modern-day Arkansas where a soldier reported seeing “great towns” that were defended by earthen walls, moats and archers. Foreigners did not appear in this region until a hundred years later. In 1682 LaSalle passed through the area that he found completely abandoned. Most historians believed that disease had destroyed the robust Indian communities that De Soto had observed. The source of the disease was...